Another Week, Another Weight .

219.6. Honestly, I don't know how I do it.

Everything in moderation. Obviously. Some things I do well with in moderation, others I do not. The whole weight-loss thing isn't truly about the number, it's more about just looking, and feeling better physically, which I feel I am doing both. Maybe not to the degree I would like in the looks department, but that's a sizable mountain to climb. I know I need to lose the rolls, especially in the middle, but I've always had them. Yeah, I've been rocking a dad-bod since I was probably about 9 years old. Who would I be if I wasn't lumpy, and unattractive? Even in college when I pretty much starved myself daily, and weighed considerably less than I do now, I still had a spare tire.

But the problem then wasn't that I ate too much, or didn't exercise enough, I just didn't do the right exercises because I couldn't afford professional help, and in those days there weren't 10,000 YouTube videos online to help you find what works for you. Mainly because online didn't really exist yet. Sure, we had alt-net, and VAX on campus so we had the first rudimentary workings of emails. I could send, and receive obnoxious jokes to, and from friends, or look through the naughty digital library of information that you never got taught in school on alt-sex, and other such alt-channels. Still, finding solid, demonstrative information on how to exercise properly wasn't easy.

But I digress.

So now I'm doing battle with what I allowed myself to become over the years. On-and-off again attempts to "get in shape" but never giving myself the right resources. But there's one thing I cannot bring myself to do. It's the one thing that everyone stresses would benefit me the most. The one thing that I know is necessary to get to my goals.

Control my diet. Limit my indulgence. Stop enjoying the variety of food that I allow myself to enjoy. Can't do it. Just can't. It is one of my biggest pleasures in life, and an obvious vice. I can eat healthier more often. I can eat smaller portions, and I have. But there is none of this, "Keto" or "Vegetarian" or "Attkins" or "Indian Tea Cleanse" or "Just Drink 190-oz of Water Every Day" stuff in my life.

I try to control where I indulge. There is no soda in my life daily. I try to avoid sugary snacks, but an occasional treat finds its way to me. I just make sure it is something I really want. I've reduced how much alcohol I drink, but I don't fully abstain. I haven't been drunk in ages.  (warning: when I do get drunk I become a Trivial Pursuit phenom) I have vices. Garlic Bread, Mac & Cheese (but not the boxed stuff), Pizza probably top the list. (hint: they all have cheese. Fuck, cheese is THE vice.) 

So I guess I'll deal with the spare tire, and just keep trying harder to work my way past my indulgences? I try to do all of those little, daily things like taking the stairs instead of an elevator in the office. I walk on break when I can actually get one, and the weather doesn't make going outside painful on my face.  What else can I do? I am open  to any, and all suggestions. Just don't say, "change your diet."

Happy Holidays?

Tonight I will probably do my holiday shopping. Knocked out a few gifts by treating my mom, and Cortney to Hamilton at Shea's this past weekend. Not exactly sure what to get for the rest of my gift giving requirements. Last year I did a  Double White Elephant kind of gift game with my parents, and their spouses. I think everyone made out. But since my mom, and her husband are covered, now I have to figure out what directly to get my dad, and his wife. What do you buy for people who are at that stage of life where they can basically just go get whatever they want when they want it?

This is one of the many reasons I dislike the holidays.  You can call me a Scrooge. Many people have. I just don't have that eternal excitement for these holidays like some people. Decorations, and lights don't mean much to me. Gift giving obligations often spur financial hardship for many people, or for others, feelings of guilt, envy, jealousy, or resentment. Streets are clogged with traffic, marketing efforts become oppressive, and why should there be an obligation for family to get together just for the holidays? So what if you don't, but you get together another time? Businesses cram their holiday festivities all within a couple of weekends for their employees, and almost always not during working hours because gawd forbid you take a day at work to pay your employees, while showing appreciation - no, holiday parties have to be after work, or on a weekend when more people also have other non-work-related things going on or to attend to.

It's not a war on Christmas, it's a battle against obligations, and expectations. And those obligations, and expectations seem to increase every year, just as the holiday season lengthens, every year. Honestly, if the holiday season was say from now, through New Year Day, I'd probably be less of a scrooge, but as it becomes more, and more about capitalism, and consumerism, then more, and more I just want the whole season to go away, and let me be. Add to that the right-wing fervor of trying to make a diverse collection of holidays, including seasonal celebrations of life itself, about nothing except their own religion, and how the 72% of the American population is somehow being oppressed because some people say "Happy Holidays" and that just pushes it over the edge for me.

The New Gutenberg Editor

WordPress 5.0 dropped recently as a required update for all WordPress users. Although much of the world viewed this in a similar fashion to the Y2K Bug, and feared 5.0 would destroy every WordPress website, I have found very few issues since the update. I have a few plugin issues to sort out, but that has actually been an on-going issue given the complexity of my site, regardless of WordPress versions.

One place I am struggling though is the new Gutenberg Block Style Post Editor.

I hate it. It removes functionality. This post was started in Gutenberg because I wanted to give it a chance, I really did. As you can see by the formatting, things are different than they were with the old editor. By the time I got to the end of the last section, and realized that Gutenberg would not allow me to use my "most recent tags" meaning I would have to manually enter all of my post tags, and with that realization I was done with Gutenberg for the day. It also wouldn't let me select from blog or members only categories, which would be problematic, not on this post since it defaults to my public blog, but in the future it would be an issue if I wanted to write, and post a more adult themed, and not for public consumption story as I sometimes do.

I installed the "classic editor" plugin provided by the WordPress Community Contributors, and I feel like I just got home from a long business trip. It won't rescue this post from the terrible block formatting Gutenberg created, and I can't switch back to the Gutenberg editor now that I moved this to classic, but I was able to click through my tags, and finish this without hassle. You can see by formatting where the switch was made.

And yes, this is finished.

Maybe not. I will give Gutenberg other chances, and keep playing with it, and researching, and learning how to use it more efficiently, but right now for the efficiency of weekly posts, I'm going to stick with what I know.

And now I'm finished. Thank you for joining me on this journey.